[Barney]

I have been daily driving a 2003 Chevy Duramax for the past 3 years. The cost of Diesel has been driving me nuts for over a year! (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/banghead.gif) Fuel usually exceeds the cost of Super.

I only need it to tow to races at max once a month. It is hard to justify the extra cost of Diesel for that much towing. It gets about 14-15 mpg average. On the highway, no towing, it will get between 17.5 and 19. Towing my 28 ft white box 11.5 to 12.5. (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)

I think I would be better off with a 6.0L 3/4 ton gas Suburban for daily use and the ocassional tow. (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/cool.gif) I even thought about a 1/2 Suburban but I would be just over the tow rating and I am afraid it would collapse the rear suspension.

What is everyone else's experience? Chevy, Dodge, Ford, Suburban-Expedition-Excusrion-1500, 2500, minivan?

This post has been edited by Barney: Mar 23 2006, 09:39 PM

[marka]

Howdy,

Everyone's deal is going to be a little different... With my old 3500 dually v10, I was getting 6mpg towing and 10mpg empty. With the 2500 diesel we've got now I get 11mpg towing, 17mpg empty.

With that much difference in mileage, it doesn't take long to be able to justify the extra cost for the diesel, whether we were towing or driving empty and almost regardless of the difference in cost between gas & diesel. The extra pulling power, better longevity, and better resale are just bonus.

But... For daily driving you can't beat a small econo car. Our Civic is a 2006, so obviously it wasn't _only_ justified via the savings in fuel costs, but over a five year period I bet you can pay for a used Neon or something like that in fuel savings with _today's_ prices, not prices a few years from now. When I ran the numbers a while back, I could spend around $6k on a daily driver w/decent fuel economy and break even in five years.

Its all just numbers though... Estimate the number of miles, the mpg you'll get, and the costs for fuel. That's the easy part. For us in terms of a truck, it didn't matter if we ran it with 8k miles a year towing only or 25k miles a year combined... Diesel was the way to fly.

Mark

(btw... the above is assuming "normal" mileage... With my 120 mile/day commute, I do about 36k miles. The Civic saves me ~$2700/year in fuel. So pretty much compared to a truck, it pays for itself.)

This post has been edited by marka: Mar 24 2006, 03:39 AM